Saints Firepower Sinks Giants
Tagged in: Competitions, NBL
The suped-up Century City Wellington Saints line-up had too many threats and too much firepower in the Dominion Finance NBL on Thursday night.
Import Ernest Scott top-scored with 22 points while centres Nick Horvath and Kevin Owens had big double-doubles as the Saints had too much for the CPS Nelson Giants 107-87 at the TSB Bank Arena.
The Saints improved to 10-4, second in the League four points behind the Waikato Pistons, and remained undefeated at 8-0 on their home floor.
Scott, who had an uncharacteristic off night last week, shot 7-of-10 from the field, to go with his five rebounds, four assists and two steals, while Horvath and Owens put up big numbers, Horvath going for 18 points and 14 rebounds and Owens for 17 points and 14 rebounds in a break-out game.
Nelson had closed to within eight points after three periods but the Saints, with their deep rotation, which included Tall Blacks point guard Lindsay Tait but was missing Brendon Polyblank, had too much energy in the fourth quarter.
Tait, in his first action in five months, had 13 points, five rebounds and four assists in a solid first-up game, while Troy McLean also fired with 18 points on 7-of-10 shooting.
Wellington opened up a 21-point lead with 6:09 to play in the third quarter after a Tait converted a three-point play, and looked to be turning the game into a rout.
But the Giants came out bombing, going on a 13-0 run, which included two threes from point guard Michael Fitchett, part of a larger 19-3 run, which included two triples from Chris Daniel and a ridiculous bomb well beyond the arc from Fitchett, which closed the score to 72-65 late in the third.
Centre Michael Harrison finished with 22 points for the Giants on 10-of-15 shooting from the field and seven rebounds, while Fitchett had 22 points, including 6-of-8 on three-point attempts, and Phill Jones had 19 points.
Fitting for a match-up between the first and third ranked three-point shooting teams, the Saints and Giants combined for 21 three-point makes and 54 three-point attempts, the Saints coming out on top with 47.6 percent.
Tait seamlessly fit into the Saints offence, starting alongside Luke Martin in a two point guard offence, the Saints clicking and going for 55 points in the first half.
Saints dominated the first half, opening up an 18-point lead late in the second period on the back of some hot-shooting from McLean and Scott and inside play from Owens.
Every time Wellington looked to pull away in the second period, Nelson were able to answer with threes from Jones, who had 14 points at halftime, and Fitchett as both teams combined for 12 first half bombs.
Dominion Finance NBL Round 12
At TSB Bank Arena, Wellington
Century City Wellington Saints 107 (Ernest Scott 22, Troy McLean 18, Nick Horvath 18, Kevin Owens 17, Lindsay Tait 13) CPS Nelson Giants 87 (Michael Harrison 22, Michael Fitchett 20, Phill Jones 19)
1Q: 29-20
HT: 55-40 (26-20)
3Q: 75-67 (20-27)
FT: 107-87 (32-20)
Saints vs Giants Box Score (21KB html)
